My Great Great Great Gradnfather was Joseph Hopeton and he married a Catherine Reid. His son was John Hopeton of Lower Pleance Dundee who maried a Flora Mary Fox, born Forfar. John Hopeton was born in 1865 in Forfar
The International Genealogical Index gives his date of birth as 15 August 1864. His parents were married in Forfar on 9 January 1842. The 1901 census says that Flora was actually born in Dorset.
The 1881 census lists at 12 Starks Close, Forfar Joseph Hopton, general labourer, aged 59, born Airlie with wife Catherine, also 59, born Forfar, son John, 16, born Forfar, daughter Elizabeth, 19, born Kingston, Canada and granddaughter Catherine, 5, born Forfar.
There's also a William Hopton, aged 28, born Canada, at 55 West High Street, Forfar with wife and two children.
Also listed is Flora M Fox, aged 17, born in England, a general servant domestic in the household of David B Esplin at 92 North Street, Forfar.
FreeBMD at
http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl lists the birth of Flora Mary Fox in the district of Wareham in Dorset in the first quarter of 1865.
information on Catherine Reid as I am having problems finding any accurate details.
Catherine Reid or Hopton (note spelling), aged 63, died in 1885 in Angus but not in Forfar. Go to
www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk, invest in a few credits and get her death certificate, which should tell you the names of her parents.
www.deceasedonline.com lists a Joseph Hopeton, buried on 8 October 1891 in Nemonthill Cemetery, Forfar. His death certificate should tell you the names of his parents.
You should have enough credits left over to look for the family in the 1871 census. This might confirm whether or not William Hopton is also a son of Joseph and Catherine.
I gaher that hen in Scotland, the family lived at Hopetoun House.
I would be astonished if that were the case, and the records, so far, don't show this. The family name of Lord Hopetoun, whose ancestors built Hopetoun House and who still owns and lives in it, is Hope, not Hopetoun. Also Joseph was a general labourer, which rather suggests that he was not a member of a wealthy landowning family several counties distant.